Showing posts with label Erdogan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Erdogan. Show all posts

Friday, 28 February 2020

Turkey opens border to Europe for Syrian refugees as one million displaced in Idlib

TURKEY will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land and sea, a senior Turkish official has said, in anticipation of the imminent arrival of refugees from Syria's Idlib, where nearly a million have been displaced.


By CIARAN MCGRATH

Turkey: President Erdogan warns of military plans to hit Idlib

 
And the news came on the same day US Senator Lindsey Graham accused the world of "sitting on its hands" and ignoring the destruction being wrought by Syrian President Bashar Assad, aided and abetted by the Russians – and urged President Donald Trump to step in. The dramatic decision raises the prospect of large numbers arriving in Southern Europe. Turkish police, coast guard and border security officials have been ordered to stand down, the official added. Earlier on Thursday, a local Turkish governor said an attack on Turkish military in Idlib killed nine soldiers, although the figure was later revised upwards to 22.
Turkey
Turkey will no longer stop Syrian refugees from heading to Europe by land and sea (Image: GETTY)
However, the Syrian Observatory, a war monitor, reported at least 34 Turkish soldiers had been killed.
In anticipation of the imminent arrival of refugees from Idlib, Turkish police, coast guard and border security officials have been ordered to stand down on refugees' land and sea crossings, the official confirmed.
Turkey hosts some 3.7 million Syrian refugees. Under a deal agreed in 2016, the European Union has provided billions of euros in aid in return for Ankara agreeing to stem the influx of migrants into Europe.

 Turkey has sent thousands of troops and heavy military hardware into northwest Syria's Idlib province to back rebels looking to hold back an offensive by Syrian government and Russian forces aimed at taking back the rebel stronghold.
Turkey tank
Turkey-backed Syrian fighters ride a tank in Idlib (Image: Reuters)

Syria: James Cleverly says UK government ‘deeply concerned’

 
Earlier Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan chaired an emergency security meeting late on Thursday to evaluate the latest developments in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, two Turkish security sources said.
Turkey backs rebels in Idlib and its military has helped resist an advance by Russian-backed Syrian government forces in recent weeks. The Turkish military death toll in the region rose earlier on Thursday to 21 so far this month.
Meanwhile Russia's Defence Ministry accused Turkey of illegally sending strike drones into Syria's Idlib region to support rebels fighting Syrian government forces, and of providing artillery support for them.
The ministry made the allegation after Syrian rebels backed by Turkish forces said they had recaptured the crossroads town of Saraqeb, marking a first big push-back of a Syrian government offensive.
Russian state TV earlier accused Turkish military specialists in Idlib of using shoulder-fired missiles to try to shoot down Russian and Syrian military aircraft.
If true, such a tactic would mark a serious escalation of the conflict.
The Russian ministry said Turkey was in breach of agreements it had made with Russia over Syria.
Refugee boy
A Syrian boy stands outside a tent at an informal camp in Idlib (Image: AFP)
Russia claimed a Turkish strike drone had illegally entered Syrian airspace on Tuesday and been destroyed by Syrian government air defences while preparing a strike on government troops.
Syrian rebels backed by Turkish forces said on Thursday they had recaptured the crossroads town of Saraqeb, marking a first big push-back of a Syrian government offensive.
Mr Erdogan said developments were turning in Ankara's favour, three weeks after the armed rebel opposition lost the northwestern town at the crossroads of two main highways to the Russian-backed Syrian government forces.
Eyewitness reports have painted a grim picture of conditions in the region.
Idlib
A refugee camp in Idlib (Image: GETTY)
The UN Security Council today heard a plea from women caught in the middle, with one saying: "All we are asking, is for the misery to stop, for the killing to stop. We want the right to live."
The message was shared by deputy UN aid chief Ursula Mueller, who spoke via videolink to 14 Syrian women in Idlib and northern Aleppo last week.
She said: "What is happening in northwest Syria, they said, is beyond imagination. It is not humanly tolerable.
"They told me of children so traumatised they no longer speak."
Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Graham has urged Donald Trump to get involved (Image: EMPICS)
Mr Graham today called for the establishment of a no-fly zone over Syria's Idlib and called on Mr Trump to help stop the killing of civilians there by Syrian government forces backed by Russia and Iran.
He added: "The world is sitting on its hands and watching the destruction of Idlib by Assad, Iran, and the Russians.
"I am confident if the world, led by the United States, pushed back against Iran, Russia, and Assad that they would stand down, paving the way for political negotiations to end this war in Syria."
Kay Bailey Hutchison, US Ambassador to NATO, responding to the latest incident in a briefing, said she hoped Mr Erdogan would see who Ankara's reliable ally is, alluding to the United States.
She said: "I hope President Erdogan will see that we are the ally of their past and their future.
"They see what Russia is, they see what they're doing now."
She repeated Washington's call on Ankara to walk away from the purchase of the Russian missile defense system.
Turkey and the United States have been at loggerheads over Ankara's decision to buy the Russian S-400 systems.

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https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1248454/turkey-migrants-Europe-syria-eu-news-refugees-idlib
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Monday, 2 October 2017

Erdogan says Turkey no longer needs EU membership

Turkey no longer needs to join the European Union, but will not unilaterally abandon the stalled EU accession talks, China's Xinhua news agency reported late Sunday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the Turkish parliament that the country no longer needs to join the EU.
"We will not be the side which gives up.
“To tell the truth, we don't need EU membership anymore.
"The EU failed us in a fight against terrorism," Erdogan was reported as saying on Sunday, although he also suggested the bloc still needed Turkey.
"If the EU is going to leap forward, there is only one way to do so…and it is to grant Turkey membership and start an action of cultural and economic growth," Erdogan said.
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/396995



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Turkey threatens retaliation after Iraqi Kurds vote leave

The Iraqi government ruled out talks on possible secession for Kurdish-held northern Iraq on Tuesday and Turkey threatened to choke it off, after a referendum on independence there showed strong support for a split.
 
Initial results of Monday’s vote indicated 72 percent of eligible voters had taken part and an overwhelming majority, possibly over 90 percent, had said “yes,” Erbil-based Rudaw TV said. Final results are expected by Wednesday.
Celebrations continued until the early hours of Tuesday in Erbil, capital of the Kurdish region, which was lit by fireworks and adorned with Kurdish red-white-green flags. People danced in the squares as convoys of cars drove around honking their horns.
In ethnically-mixed Kirkuk, where Arabs and Turkmen opposed the vote, local Kurdish-led authorities lifted an overnight curfew imposed to maintain control.
The referendum has fuelled fears of a new regional conflict. On Tuesday, Turkey, which has fought a Kurdish insurgency within its borders for decades, reiterated threats of economic and military retaliation.
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani says the vote is not binding, but meant to provide a mandate for negotiations with Baghdad and neighbouring countries over the peaceful secession of the region from Iraq.
But Iraq’s opposition to Kurdish independence did not waver.
“We are not ready to discuss or have a dialogue about the results of the referendum because it is unconstitutional,” Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a speech on Monday night.
The Kurds held the vote despite threats to block it from Baghdad, Iraq’s powerful eastern neighbour Iran, and Turkey, the region’s main link to the outside world.
“This referendum decision, which has been taken without any consultation, is treachery,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, repeating threats to cut off the pipeline that carries hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day from northern Iraq to global markets.
Oslo-based broker Sparebank 1 Markets said oil companies could sell some oil locally if exports were blocked but their revenues would take a hit.
Iraqi Kurds – part of the largest ethnic group left stateless when the Ottoman empire collapsed a century ago – say the referendum acknowledges their contribution in confronting Islamic State after it overwhelmed the Iraqi army in 2014 and seized control of a third of Iraq.
Voters were asked to say “yes” or “no” to the question: “Do you want the Kurdistan Region and Kurdistani areas outside the (Kurdistan) Region to become an independent country?”
With 30 million ethnic Kurds scattered across the region, mainly in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria, governments fear the spread of separatism to their own Kurdish populations.
Iraqi soldiers joined Turkish troops for military exercises in southeast Turkey on Tuesday near the border with Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
Turkey also took the Rudaw TV channel off its satellite service TurkSat, a Turkish broadcasting official told Reuters.
The US State Department said it was “deeply disappointed” by the KRG’s decision to conduct the referendum but added that Washington’s “historic relationship” with the people of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region would not change.
Asked about the referendum, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Monday: “We hope for a unified Iraq to annihilate IS and certainly a unified Iraq to push back on Iran.”
Iran announced a ban on direct flights to and from Kurdistan on Sunday, while Baghdad asked foreign countries to stop direct oil trading with the Kurdish region and demanded that the KRG hand over control of its international airports and border posts with Iran, Turkey and Syria.
Iranian major general Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top military adviser to the supreme leader, called on “the four neighbouring countries to block land borders” with the Iraqi Kurdish region, according to state news agency IRNA.
Tehran supports Shiite Muslim groups that have ruled or held security and government positions in Iraq since the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Syria, embroiled in a devastating civil war and whose Kurds are pressing ahead with their own self-determination, rejected the referendum.
KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said he hoped to maintain good relations with Turkey. “The referendum does not mean independence will happen tomorrow, nor are we redrawing borders,” he said in Erbil on Monday. “If the ‘yes’ vote wins, we will resolve our issues with Baghdad peacefully.”
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson reiterated London’s opposition to the vote, urging ”all sides to refrain from provocative statements and actions in its aftermath.
“The priority must remain the defeat of Daesh and returning stability to liberated areas,” he added, a reference to IS militants who continue to control parts of Iraq and Syria, including a pocket west of Kirkuk.
- Reuters
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